From 3 to 8 October 1939 Silvia attended a meeting for young leaders of Catholic Action in Loreto. Often, in those days, she went to the shrine that encloses the little house that once belonged to the Family of Nazareth. Chiara remembers: “I knelt beside the walls blackened by the lamps. Something new and divine surrounded me, almost crushing me. I contemplated the virgin life of the three. So, Mary will have lived here -I thought- Joseph will have walked across the room from there to there. The Child Jesus in their midst will have known this place for years. The walls will have resounded with his voice…”[1]. That is when she had her first intuition of being called to a new and specific vocation that had something to do with that singular Family: “That coexistence of virgins with Jesus among them had an irresistible attraction to me. I understood it was a new way. I knew no other. Thus Chiara recounted in 2001 to her fellow citizens in Trent.

 

Note

  1. [1] M. Gentilini, Chiara Lubich, Prophet of Unity New City London 2020 p 74
Postcard sent from Loreto to her friend Valentina Ghesla
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